Archives - April 2008

WANTED - ONE BODY!
by Charles Dyer

Produced by Mike Liassides

THE PLAY

Described as a farcical chiller, the play is set at an unspecified time (late 60s or early 70s) in the recently-deceased Mr Barraclough's mansion on the day of his funeral. Arriving to read the will, solicitors Blundell and Mickleby are initially mistaken for the undertakers, which leads to their discovery that the body is missing. Suspicion falls variously on the unpleasant daughter Faith, the various servants, the elderly Dr Brown and the genuine, sinister undertaker Mr Sorrel. Faith is poisoned at the will reading and everyone is shocked when her twin sister Hope arrives and is even more unpleasant. Her intention is to cheat the servants out of their legacies, having already been responsible for murdering her stepfather and sister - with the aid of actor Popkiss, impersonating Dr Brown - in order to hasten her inheritance. However, her attempt to double-cross Popkiss causes him to murder her too. It is left to Blundell and the hapless Mickleby to unthread the plot, discover the secret passageways in the house and eventually bring Popkiss to justice.

FROM THE GROUP

I don't usually aspire towards producing comedies - there are others much better at understanding the Earthling sense of humour than me. However, this play amused me from the off and had pretty much cast itself on first reading, by about page 3. I could see exactly how the characters would work, liked the concept and figured that we could do a good job of getting an atmosphere going with lights, sounds and secret entrances. Sure, there were some sizeable holes in the plot, but we don't write the scripts...
My cast, including first-timer Clare Mitchell, did a fine job of slipping straight into character at rehearsals and a largely furniture-free stage gave them lots of scope for moving about. It all came together rather easily - I didn't feel overworked directing them! - and the rehearsal period was good fun. The end result was a light-hearted, fast-paced production that set out purely to entertain and on the night it certainly seemed the audience agreed!

Mike - Producer

Such a fabulous play and just so much fun. It was great to start off with such a good script and characters that were so well written. Most of the characters had a funny edge and it was surprising how on each of the nights the audience would find one of these the funniest. The rest of the cast would just smile at me occasionally because every time the European Doctor came on I would just laugh my head off. The Blundell and Mickleby relationship was really good as well - reminded me of Laurel and Hardy :-)
I had great fun with my character Mabel Middy because she had lots of different sides. She was very scared of the mistress and yet seemed cheeky with the solictors. She was like a child with the cook but overall she seemed to talk out of turn and generally make a nuisance of herself which was great fun. I was very lucky to have a such an interesting character my first time with the group - it really gave me a chance to spread my wings.
On a backstage note I think it wasn't until the nights of the performances that the cast really realised how awfully forgetful I am. Every night I would loose a broach or shoe and the number of times I almost went on stage without the required hanky etc was just silly. By the last night all Anne could do was tut at me and say "You haven't lost something again have you?" I am just surprised I managed to be milk monitor for an entire production without forgetting that!

Clare M - Actress

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